


The Scent of Love

by LightningArrow (CalJordan)



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Arrowverse - Fandom, The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Day 3, F/M, M/M, Olivarry Week 2018, Olivarry Week 2018-Day 3, Soulmate AU, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 07:10:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15334575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CalJordan/pseuds/LightningArrow
Summary: You only get your sense of smell when you meet your soulmate. Barry can smell for the first time, but since he’s in a different city, he’s met a lot of new people.Olivarry Week 2018, Day 3-Soulmate AU





	The Scent of Love

**Author's Note:**

> This is what happens when I try to be creative  
> I went around like a weirdo smelling things, so you better enjoy. Also, I know that you shouldn’t be able to taste stuff if it weren't for your sense of smell, but Soulmate AUs aren't the most scientific thing, so just ignore the science nazi inside of you. Also, it was finished last minute so no beta (but I used Grammarly)
> 
> Also, this is my first time writing this pair. Actually, it's my first time writing fanfiction in 3 years and my first time on AO3

Like everyone else, Barry had learned about the five senses in elementary school. He knew about sight, taste, touch, hearing and smell. He couldn’t imagine life without his vision, not being able to see the world around him, to know what he looked like. Nor could he imagine life without audition, not being able to hear others talk, not being able to enjoy music. Neither could he imagine life without being able to taste, not being able to enjoy the food. He didn’t even try to imagine life without the sense of touch, picking up things and not being able to feel them, that would just be plain weird. But he could imagine life without the sense of smell. He didn’t really have to try. It was his reality. It was harder for him to imagine life with the sense of smell. It was like coming up with a completely new colour, or inventing a new season.

 

He was told that when he met his soulmate, he was going to gain his sense of smell. He wasn’t sure he believed in the concept of soulmates, although those around him assured him that it was real and that they could actually smell. But even if he believed in soulmates, he didn’t think he had one. Iris was the only person he’d ever wanted to spend the rest of his life with, but she wasn’t his soulmate. And anyway, Barry had more important things to do, like finding out who really killed his mom and proving his father’s innocence.

 

And that why, he, behind his captain’s back, hopped on the second train to Starling City (he missed the first train but that wasn’t really his fault, it was the taxi driver that though he was right), as soon as he heard about a case that could give him any clues that would help him solve his mother’s murder. He arrived at Queen Consolidated Applied Science Division’s Building and quickly examined the crime scene while eavesdropping on the cops and crime techs talking to get a sense of the situation.

 

He heard a voice he thought he recognized. “That must be Oliver Queen,” he thought. His foster sister had been obsessed with the guy. She always turned up the volume every time he was on television, Barry had gotten to know his voice. He seemed to be discussing the crime scene with another man, a police officer on the case and some other guy holding a tablet, a woman that seemed to be Oliver Queen’s personal assistant and a man who behaved like his bodyguard. They hypothesized that one guy came in, the one visible on camera, and then the rest of his crew came in.

 

“Actually, it was only one guy” interrupted Barry. He then started to babble about why he was late while he was scratching his nose.

 

“Great! Who the hell are you?” The badge on the officer said “Lance”. If Barry remembered correctly, there used to be a detective named Quentin Lance who wanted to arrest Starling City vigilante but ended up helping when there was an attack on the Glades.

 

“And do your parents know that you’re here” He had a baby face, he knew that, and was used to the remarks. But somehow, coming from Oliver Queen, it stung a little.

 

“I’m Barry Allen,” He said, in a you-guys-are-supposed-to-know-that-I-was-coming-here kind of tone. Although he wasn’t supposed to be there. He muttered something about there being weird things happening in Central City and his captain sending him here when they heard about the strange case.

 

Then officer Lance started asking questions about what Barry had said. He was skeptic and didn’t believe that one man could have ripped through the heavy metallic door as if it were tinfoil. Barry bet that officer Lance wouldn’t have believed him about the man in yellow either.  He rubbed under his nose twice with his proximal and took out his tablet. He explained how the bruising on the dead security guard indicated that only one hand was used. For some reason, he looked at Oliver. “I’m guessing you don’t how hard it is to break someone’s neck”

 

Oliver looked at him and scratched his nose “Um no, no idea.” Barry went on explaining what he knew. He couldn’t believe that he pulled it off. That he was actually on the case. And he had managed to make a friend. None other than Felicity Smoak, who had met Starling City’s own vigilante. He tried to get information. He was a huge fan of the vigilantes. He had written a few times about him in his blog. But Felicity seemed to dismiss him. She didn’t want to talk about it. He understood that it must have been traumatic. He was still happy he had someone to talk to.

 

But then his cover was blown. Oliver knew there was no similar case. He was ready for it to happen. He knew lying had consequences. But the way Oliver looked at him stung. He had to give up at this chance of understanding the impossible. He was really surprised when he received the phone call from Oliver telling him to come to his party. Even more surprised when he woke up and found out that Oliver was the vigilante known as the Hood and that he, Barry, was the only one that could save him. He went to Oliver to diagnose him and his nose tingled like crazy.

 

Oliver wasn’t happy. You’d think he would’ve been happy to have been saved, but he wasn’t. He yelled at Felicity for revealing his identity. Barry defended her. Didn’t he realize that the other choices were to take him to a hospital or to let him die? Not much left of a secret identity either way. Oliver Queen was a jerk, Barry now knew that. But he was more than happy to make him a mask before he left.

 

Barry was glad to be in Central City. He was really excited about the Particle accelerator to be turned. But he couldn’t help but feel like a certain yearning for Starling city. Although Oliver Queen had been a massive jerk to him, he really couldn’t help but to want to be back his and his team’s side, helping him on a case. He always admired Starling City’s city Vigilante, and now he finally knew who it was. Maybe he could even ask for help on solving his mother’s murder. But right now he had to help process the evidence from the Mardon brother’s case.

 

“Hey! I am ready to see this atom smasher... Smashing” Iris said, walking into Barry’s lab. Iris didn’t really understand what it was, so Barry explained, even using the board and a marker to illustrate the point.

 

“Barry, do you have a cold or something?” she asked, concerned.

 

“No. Why? What makes you think I do?”

 

“You won't stop touching your nose. You do that sometimes when you have a stuffy nose”

 

He took a breath through one of his nostrils and then blew air through the other. “I’m breathing perfectly fine”

 

“Oh my good Barry, don’t tell me you met your Soulmate? Oh my god Barry, can you smell?”

 

“I don’t know,  maybe. The air feels different and keeps changing. Sometimes it’s heavy,  sometimes it’s lighter. Sometimes it feels repulsive. Sometimes it tickles, sometimes it itches” He said with a shrug.

 

“Oh my god Barry. Since when...?”

 

“Since I went to Starling…”

 

“Gosh Barry, who was it?” She was taking her role as a future journalist very seriously. She had to get the full scoop.

 

“I don’t know Iris. I don’t know anybody in Starling. I met a lot of new people. It could be anyone”

 

“Why don’t you make a list of everyone you talked to in Starling?” She casually suggested.

 

“Why? So I can go to each of them, one by one and ask ‘hey, are you my soulmate’?  I don’t think I’ll do that, thanks”

 

“I don’t know Barry. But you can’t just not do anything about it”

 

“And that exactly what I’ll do, nothing”

 

“Bear, we have some time before your nerdy thing goes on and I have the perfect activity for us. Just let me tell dad that you’re leaving early.” While she was gone, Barry finished his paperwork. “Everything is fine Bear, we can go.”

 

Iris explained that, back in the days, she had read in a teen magazine about things you could do when you got your sense of smell. Iris blindfolded Barry and made him smell random things and made him describe the smell. She then took off the blindfold and showed him what she made him smell. After that, she made him put the blindfold again and made him guess what he was smelling.

 

The whole walk to the Science and Technology Advanced Research Laboratories, Iris talked about how excited she was to meet her soulmate. Barry listened, but mainly, he tough about the particle accelerator, and Oliver, the Arrow and the night his mom died. But when he was finally in front of Harrison Wells, THE Harrison Wells, a man stole Iris’ purse. He tried to run after the guy into an alley. But there was a repugnant smell coming out of the garbage containers. A smell so uncomfortably overwhelming that made him lose consciousness.

 

When he woke up, he was at the back of a police cruiser, with Iris by his side. They went to the precinct in order to give their statements and fill paperwork.

 

“Who is that guy, and what is he so proud of? He only caught a mugger.” Asked Iris

 

“He’s a transfer from Keystone, started a few weeks ago. Eddie Thawne.”

 

“Ohh, that’s Detective Pretty Boy” Barry looked at her, confused. “That’s what my dad calls him. Says he actually keeps score when it comes to arrests. He’s pretty, though.”

 

“Let’s go to my lab. We can watch the particle accelerator turn on on my computer and I can finish some paperwork.”

 

“Barry, I can smell” Iris confessed when they got in the lab.

 

“Really?” He was surprised. What a coincidence that both he and Iris had found their soulmates around the same time. He turned on his computer and put on the news.

 

“It’s just like you described. A tingle.”

 

“Do you know who it was?”

 

“Eddie”

 

“Eddie Thawne?” At that moment, the reporter said that the particle accelerator was malfunctioning. He looked outside and saw an explosion. He went to close the roof’s trap door and an instant later, he was hit by lightning.

 

* * *

 

Oliver had been feeling weird for a few months. His senses were often overwhelmed. The air felt different, almost like it had a flavour.  And somehow, it was amplified every time he wore the mask that the kid from Central City had made him.

 

“Felicity, I need you to run a test” He announced one night after patrolling.

 

“Why, have you found a new lead?”

 

“I need you to make sure that there aren’t any substances on the mask. Like drugs or something” He took off his mask and handed it to her.

 

“Why would... Oh my god, Oliver, you don’t think Barry... Because he would never do that. I mean he’s like an adorable little puppy. And he works for the police. I don’t think he would do some-”

 

“FELICITY,” He said sternly. “You don’t really know him. You only spent two days with him”

 

“Fine, Oliver, I’ll do it.” She looked under the microscope.  “I don’t see traces of any weird substance. He’s either really good at hiding the drugs, which wouldn't be surprising as he’s a forensic scientist and he would know what to do and what not to do, not that he would do something like that or there’s is nothing and you’re just being crazy, which by the way, is more probable than Barry drugging you. Anyways, I’ll run a few more tests. In the meanwhile, why don’t you tell me what wrong with you? And why you think Barry drugged you?”

 

“I think I’m having hallucinations, but like with my nose. I’m feeling all sorts of different things. It started around the same time I started wearing that mask.”

 

“Oh no honey, you weren’t drugged. You can smell. That means you met your soulmate.” She said in a motherly way, stopping the test she had begun.

 

“I have a soulmate,” Oliver said in disbelief. After all these years, he thought he was just part of the unlucky one percent who didn’t have a soulmate.

 

“So who did you meet in December?”

 

“Criminals, business partners, cops, Barry, I don’t know. A lot of people” He said, desperate.

 

“Do you want me to run a background check on all of them? See if any of them already have a soulmate?”

 

“Just forget it.” He had lived without a soulmate, It’s not because he now had one that he needed them.

 

* * *

 

When Barry woke up, his first thought was “Where am I?” and his second thought had been “And what is that smell”. He found out he’d been in a coma for nine months. He found out that Iris and Eddie were together. He was happy for them. He found out that he had superpowers, _superspeed_. He found he wasn’t the only one with powers. Bad guys also had them. He knew it was his responsibility to stop them. No one else could. He could with his superspeed He tried. He really did. But someone died. Barry almost wanted to give up.

 

He knew someone who could give him advice. He knew who to call. No, not the ghostbuster. He sped all the way to Starling and met with Oliver. He told him about his story with his mom, how he was hit by lightning, waking up with powers, seeing that he wasn’t the only. He told him about how he tried to be a hero but how someone else died.

 

Oliver reassured Barry. Told him he was bound to make mistakes. That he could be a hero, an inspiration. He told Barry that he could be better than he had ever been. That he had been chosen by the lightning bolt. He reminded him to wear a mask.

 

“Hey Oliver, one last thing,” He said the moment Oliver was about to leave.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“It’s kind of a weird question but do you know if anybody in Starling City gained their sense of smell like nine months ago, more precisely around the time I was there, and they haven’t found their soulmate yet?” Oliver quickly put two and two together.

 

“Yeah” Barry's eyes lit up as he leaned a tad closer to Oliver.

 

“Who?”

 

“Me”  What? Why did he say?

 

“You?” He needed to make sure that he heard right.

 

“Yes. Me.” Now Barry was confused, what was Oliver saying? Was Oliver saying what he thought he was saying?

 

“Are you saying that you’re my…” Barry couldn’t really believe what was happening

 

“Your soulmate. Yes, that what I’m saying” So… Oliver was his soulmate?

 

“So you’re my soulmate” It was weird saying it out loud.

 

“Apparently”

 

“So are we or we not…I don’t know.. gonna do something about it.” Barry couldn’t wrap his head around the idea of being with Oliver, and he was sure the older man felt the same. No way was Oliver interested in being with him.

 

“What about I take you on a date on Saturday and we see where it goes?”

 

* * *

 

Although he had lived for 23 years without his sense of smell, he now couldn’t imagine living without it. He couldn’t imagine not smelling flowers, or not being able to perceive the scent of freshly baked bread. Even the more disgusting smell, he couldn’t imagine living without. But most of all, he couldn’t imagine living not being able to smell his favourite scent. I had taken a while to get to where they were but now, he couldn’t imagine wrapping his arms around Oliver and not being able to take in his scent. And neither could Oliver.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if some parts felt rushed. Also, you may have observed that I sure love to write dialogue. There are a few scenes I could have done in more details (the smell test part). The thing is that I started this a month ago but I only finished it today. Also, I didn’t want to just rewrite “The Scientist” “Three Ghost” and the Flash’s pilot.


End file.
